The ads for Bic Soleil, which appeared on public transit in most major Canadian cities, featured a long-legged woman decked out in '50s-era fashion bent over the cake aisle in a grocery store, with the tag, "For legs that beckon."

In Toronto, the ads were vandalized. Shortly after they appeared on subway stations, they had messages like, "Aren't we past this?" and " '50s values" scrawled across them.

Some people went as far as to paste homemade stickers on the ads, including one that read, "Retro-sexism," and another that said, "Hey Ladies! Don't kid yourselves. Your gams are for glaring at -- pure decoration. Your legs are NOT for kicking ass, standing tall or marching. Like a slab of meat or a tasty cake treat, you are an object to be consumed and don't assume otherwise. If you are wise you will do everything you can to look pretty because that's all that matters."

Bic spokeswoman Linda Kwong told QMI Agency the company opted to pull the ads in light of the negative reaction.

"We wanted to take that feedback seriously," Kwong said. "We certainly apologize to them for any offence taken. It was certainly not our intention to offend anyone."

Kwong said the company made the decision to discontinue the campaign after receiving a number of upset e-mails from consumers.

One of those letters was from Toronto's Jenni Sager, 23, who launched an online petition against the ads.

"I was repulsed by this advertisement," Sager wrote in an open letter to Bic.

Sager said the ad promotes the idea that the "old style of less feminist times is trendy," which suggests "women are sexual objects who dress up in heels, makeup and sexually provocative clothing when they go out and do their job -- grocery shopping."